Encourage pupils to walk to school
Walk to school week is from the 16th – 20th of May 2022 and this year’s theme is power up. Pupils will be encouraged to travel sustainably to school every day of the week. The challenge is designed to reinforce the benefits and keep children engaged whilst walking. We have some handy tips to encourage pupils to walk to school and make it fun and engaging for them.
Benefits of walking to school
Walking children to school helps contribute to their daily amount of exercise. It’s a brilliant way to get active and healthy without realising you are exercising.
Walking can also help kids learn about the benefits of exercising, making it easier for them to understand why they should eat healthy foods and stay active when they grow up.
Did you know that walking helps reduce pollution? By leaving the car at home, you will be helping reduce congestion in your area.
Make walking fun with cross-curricular activities
PE:
Did you know walking to school makes kids feel happy and fit? Encourage children to walk to school during walk to school week. We want them to experience the joys of going on a healthy walk in the fresh air with their friends.
Create opportunities for children during PE lessons. Take them out for walks as part of the PE class. This will give pupils the opportunity to be physically active outdoors in a natural setting where there are lots of different things for them to explore and observe.
Maths:
Encourage children to participate in walk to school week by incorporating it into math activities. Children can use a trundle wheel with the counter to measure long-distance walks. They can use this information to make graphs and charts or share results with their class.
Have children create a map of direction to get from one place to another and then have them follow it or even get them to collect pebbles when walking and count how many pebbles they have collected.
History:
Offer children the opportunity to learn about history by taking them out for a walk during the walk to school week. Challenge your class to identify the local landmarks whilst they are walking.
You can do this by offering pupils an activity sheet on the local landmarks around the school or even an A5 card featuring British Monarchs. This will encourage children to walk more whilst keeping themselves engaged in the activity.
Science:
Take the class out for a walk during science lessons. This is an effective way to help kids connect with what they are learning, for example, when teaching children about the human respiratory system.
Have children walk around the school and then later they could observe their own breathing patterns. You could also create a worksheet with different plants and insects and have them identify them on their walk.
Geography:
Geography is a great way to make walking fun for children in your school. You can encourage your class to identify different trees as they walk or take them out for a hike through a forest and point out several types of rocks they see along the way.
You could even encourage pupils to use a compass to work out their location in relation to others around them or teach them how to read maps so they can navigate their way back home again!
Walking to school each day can be a great way to get exercise for children. It will not only help children establish a habit they can continue practising throughout their childhood, but it helps them discover new things about their local environment like wildlife.
The walk to school initiative can be difficult for kids to participate in. Therefore, encouraging cross-curricular activities during school time is a perfect way to get everyone involved.
Interested in more blogs like this? then take a read of our recent blog on ‘A Guide To: Promote Healthy Eating in Schools’